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Published: October 30th 2023
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When was the last time, you did something for the first time?
It was going to be my first time sky jumping - which is when you jump off a building, but don’t free fall under gravity. You do come down, in a controlled fashion, reaching a top speed of 40mph. Having done similar stuff in the past, I was still looking forward to it.
The day started early. My wife and I had breakfast at the hotel. Before sky jumping, there was another bit of adventure that we wanted to do - hand feeding some lions. We made our way to the Lion Habitat Ranch at a place called Henderson, which is a few miles south of Las Vegas. We were greeted by an ostrich and an emu upon entering the premises. There were birds too. But the major attraction of the place was a giraffe named Ozi and some lions and lionesses.
While we wanted to experience being with these animals up and close, we also wanted to do our bit in helping out these animals. We learnt that it costs a lot of money, gathering food for these animals to eat and taking care of them.
We first took our turn in feeding Ozi the giraffe. He was sweet and came down to us, each time we held out a piece of lettuce in our hands. Since he was young, he also got a little distracted at times. On his second try, he left a small piece of lettuce with me. The official working with us said that he would come down again and take that piece from my hand, if I held it out for him - I did that and he did exactly that. For any kids reading this, the lesson to be learnt is - never waste food. 😊
After that, it was time to feed the big cats. We had a few options to choose from, with both lions and lionesses available to be fed. I was sad when I learnt that most visitors choose to feed lions, probably because they look more majestic and fearsome overall. We, on the other hand, decided to feed a lioness. The sanctuary official suggested that we feed Cheeto, a twelve year old lioness.
We went through a briefing in which they explained to us, how we should feed Cheeto. There was going to be a glass wall with a hole. We were supposed to put Cheeto’s food in the hole and then push it towards her to eat. We were given three chunks of meat each. Cheeto came out of her room, even before being called - she could smell the meat. Feeding her was nice and simple; when I saw her being restless for the meat, I asked her to be patient, to which the official said - “Patience is a virtue that none of our animals have”. 😊 After I was done, it was my wife’s turn to feed the big cat.
After spending some more time there, we headed back to Las Vegas.
Back at Vegas, we headed to one of the casinos and had lunch at a restaurant. After that, we walked outside for a bit in the warm and balmy weather; which made me feel comfortable as it reminded me of home. We got to the sky jump place before time. Soon, they opened their office and after going through some questions and signing a waiver, it was time for me to suit up. They gave me a green jump suit to wear and asked me not to consume anything, not even water till the time of the jump. I still drank some water as I knew that my body wouldn’t have any problem keeping it down. Then they put my harness on and double checked it.
I proceeded towards the elevator with two other jumpers and a sky jump employee. On our way there, we saw some people get off the elevator; they were on their way back from the sky jump observatory. Having seen how high it was, they put their hands up and applauded us for being brave enough to do this.
Soon we were at the top, more than a thousand feet above the ground. There were other people at the same area, who were visiting the observatory for the views and the food and drinks. When it was my turn to go, I entered an enclosure where an employee checked my harness once again and posed with me for a photograph. I then left the enclosure and walked a few steps to the jumping spot. Another employee checked my harness one final time, turned my camera on and said that he would provide me with a countdown for my jump. Looking at my calm demeanor, he asked whether I was excited or not. 😊
I was standing there, at the edge, having a look at the city of Las Vegas. The instructor gave his countdown - 3-2-1 and I took just one step and experienced gravity at work. The wind was hitting my whole body as I could feel myself getting closer to the city. It was exciting. I started shouting as I was having so much fun. The descend lasted for several seconds. When I got to the ground I was disappointed that the whole experience got over so soon.
After my harness was removed, I got out of my jump suit and collected my certificate and pen drive with the video of my jump. My wife and I then headed to the airport to catch our flight to Burbank, California.
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